S01.E02: The Rogue Prince

[Meredith Quill]

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Episode Synopsis:

Princess Rhaenyra dives deep into the prophecies about House Targaryen while confronting a realm that resists the idea of a woman on the Iron Throne, and Prince Daemon, embittered over being passed over as the heir to Westeros, prepares to go to war.

Reminder: 

There is open air book talk here. If you are just watching the TV show and you don't want to stumble into any book talk you should leave now. Book Talk assumes you have read any of the related books to date. 

[Meredith Quill]

Seems Lady Misery isn't pregnant? That's different...hmm, I confusion.

[AimingforYoko]

Otto's plan worked, and I get Viserys not wanting to marry a 12 year-old, but this is definitely going to bite him in the ass.

This was a much stronger episode for Milly Alcock. That head whip when she realized who Viserys was going to marry was awesome.

[AntFTW]

Interesting episode. I actually liked this episode better than I liked the first one.

Imagine your best friend marrying your father. Wow!

Whatever the opening titles were depicting, it went over my head.

[AntFTW]

2 minutes ago, AimingforYoko said:

Otto's plan worked, and I get Viserys not wanting to marry a 12 year-old, but this is definitely going to bite him in the ass.

This was a much stronger episode for Milly Alcock. That head whip when she realized who Viserys was going to marry was awesome.

Agreed, much better episode for her.

Otto spent much of the time making Rhaenyra seem smaller in status than she is, with the goal of rising the stature of his daughter to marry Allicent to the King. In the long term, I imagine that will continue to make any heirs that Allicent may have seem more important than Rhaenyra also. 

[SeanC]

This is an interesting case of how adaptation choices and casting affects the way things are perceived.

In the books, Viserys was 29 at the time of his remarriage, while Alicent was 18. The choice of her over Laena was very expressly about wanting to marry an adult woman who was relatively close to him in age, rather than a child (which he had already done previously at his family's direction with Aemma).

Whereas here, several different changes have been made:

- it's not clear how old this Viserys is supposed to be, but clearly he's older than his book counterpart, going by, among other things, that they've aged up Rhaenyra and cast 48-year-old Paddy Considine in the role.

- Alicent has actually (seemingly) been aged down from her book counterpart, and turned into a peer of Rhaenyra, a relationship that didn't exist in the source material because Rhaenyra was nine years old.

[Constantinople]

2 hours ago, SilverStormm said:

Seems Lady Misery isn't pregnant? That's different...hmm, I confusion.

You mean Daemon's a lying liar who lied? 😂

Edited August 29, 2022 by Constantinople

[nara]

32 minutes ago, SeanC said:

This is an interesting case of how adaptation choices and casting affects the way things are perceived.

In the books, Viserys was 29 at the time of his remarriage, while Alicent was 18. The choice of her over Laena was very expressly about wanting to marry an adult woman who was relatively close to him in age, rather than a child (which he had already done previously at his family's direction with Aemma).

Whereas here, several different changes have been made:

- it's not clear how old this Viserys is supposed to be, but clearly he's older than his book counterpart, going by, among other things, that they've aged up Rhaenyra and cast 48-year-old Paddy Considine in the role.

- Alicent has actually (seemingly) been aged down from her book counterpart, and turned into a peer of Rhaenyra, a relationship that didn't exist in the source material because Rhaenyra was nine years old.

I like the choices so far. I think it makes sense to make Alicent more nuanced than in the novella. I remember people calling her Alic_nt and I think people will emphasize with the show version more.

I am curious about what will be made of all the king’s injuries 

[magdalene]

Crabs eating people! Maggots! Bon appetit! Viserys is decomposing while alive.

Excellent  second episode, the show is building nicely towards - self-inflicted tragedy?

I hope Otto crapped his pants when he saw Caraxes, the bestest boy. Daemon and the princess have nice chemistry, hey, at least she is not his sister, lol.

Why Alicent, you little minx, doing your daddy so proud and back-stabbing your bestie in the process.  I am sure you will be the best step-mother ever. Oh dear, Rhaenaria really likes Criston Cole. 

Spoiler

that traiterous swine. Can't wait for him to die

I continue to like Daemon very much  and I am not conflicted about that at all.  In  the book Lady Misery was actually pregnant, they seem to have changed that.

Edited August 29, 2022 by magdalene

[magdalene]

52 minutes ago, nara said:

like the choices so far. I think it makes sense to make Alicent more nuanced than in the novella. I remember people calling her Alic_nt and I think people will emphasize with the show version more.

Not me. Her nickname fits her perfectly.  That sweetness is all pretense.

[Diapason Untuned]

Here I was last week thinking Otto was scum for pimping out his daughter but this week we have Corys sending out his 12 year old daughter while he watches on like she out having fun at the park. 🤮 

Viserys was just so done with the whole thing when she told him he'd have to sleep with her at 14.

Daemon continued his reign as the uncontested king of savages by stealing his dead nephew's dragon egg and leaving behind a note taunting his brother with it. I really liked seeing Rhaenrya call out his bluff. That's the kind of iron she'll need in the future.

Emma D' Arcy doing some phenomenal acting. The way she just turned her head when she heard her father would be marrying her best friend was just *chef's kiss* So much emotion in there!

Correction: Milly Arlock, not Emma D' Arcy

Edited August 29, 2022 by Diapason Untuned

[magdalene]

9 minutes ago, Diapason Untuned said:

Emma D'Arcy doing some phenomenal acting. The way she just turned her head when she heard her father would be marrying her best friend was just *chef's kiss* So much emotion in there!

I think Emma D'Arcy is playing the older Rhaenyra. Wrong actress.

[SeanC]

10 minutes ago, Diapason Untuned said:

Emma D'Arcy doing some phenomenal acting. The way she just turned her head when she heard her father would be marrying her best friend was just *chef's kiss* So much emotion in there!

Milly Alcock is the young Rhaenyra; D'Arcy is playing the older Rhaenyra.

[Diapason Untuned]

Thanks for the corrections!

[ursula]

Now I understand why Laena was made so much younger. It was to give Viserys a reason to turn down what was technically (incest and child marriage aside), the best marriage proposal on offer.

[magdalene]

14 hours ago, SilverStormm said:

Seems Lady Misery isn't pregnant? That's different...hmm, I confusion.

I thought that was very interesting.  Seems totally in character that Daemon would make shit up just because he feels like it. When you consider that the source material, the history book this story is based on is not reliable because it's written by a court jester writing salacious tittle-tattle, and Maesters both twisting the truth for their own ends and not having access to the truth in in some cases, I wonder what else we are going to be surprised by? There is one thing in particular at the end that I am hoping the Maesters are wrong about and reader wishes come true. Smiles.

[qtpye]

I am going to say something that makes me a horrible person.

We all know fantasy series have beautiful people. There are some very gorgeous families in GRRM's world like the Starks, Lannisters, and Martells, to just name a few.

Then, of course, we have beautiful Missandei, Grey Worm, and even frickin Tyrion and Brienne were good looking.

I always imagined the Targs to be particularly beautiful because their coloring gave them an otherworldly appearance. 

Emilia's Danny was so pretty to me (not so much her brothers) and looked much like I had imagined.

The actors in this series are all attractive but those horrible wigs are terrible.

They actually make the magnificent Targs look like...dorks. 

Dorks on dragons.

Anyway, I just had to get this stupid opinion off my chest.  Otherwise, I like the series.

[Meredith Quill]

How do you feel about pirate looking dorks on dragons? ^Aemond One-Eye waves^ heh